Setup x11vnc server with systemd auto start up

The reason I use x11vnc is that it connects to the existing graphical session. Most other vnc servers will spawn an entirely new graphical session. While that is super cool, I don’t want that feature. This is for remote support, where I want the user and the supporter to share the same session. I use the ‘-auth guess’ to have x11vnc guess the XAUTHORITY file‐name and use it appropriately. This avoids the annoying hard coding of gdm, lightdm, xdm or specific users .Xauthority.



Install x11vnc

# apt-get install x11vnc



The following should work for any distro that uses systemd, just the apt bits are Debian specific.



Generate the password and store it under etc so no users can change this password, only root. You can do this under your users home so that its not managed by root. In my case I didn’t want the user to be able to change or accidentally delete the password.

# x11vnc -storepasswd /etc/x11vnc.pwd



edit (create new) the following file

use whatever text editor you prefer, here I use vi

# vi /etc/systemd/system/x11vnc.service



And add the following, making any changes you want to the x11vnc ExecStart

See the man page for explanations of the switches



[Unit]

Description=Start x11vnc at startup.

After=multi-user.target



[Service]

Type=simple

ExecStart=/usr/bin/x11vnc -auth guess -forever -loop -noxdamage -repeat -rfbauth /etc/x11vnc.pwd -rfbport 5900 -shared -o /var/log/x11vnc.log



[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now enable the above, start it and verify its running and listening properly

# systemctl enable x11vnc

# systemctl start x11vnc

# netstat -pat

tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5900 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 2806/x11vnc



Now that the server is all setup lets move onto the client

apt-get install tigervnc-viewer

vncviewer [remote host ip or hostname]



done;